If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Re: grammatically correct but not colloquial

First, who says it's grammatical? Second, who says only British speakers don't use it? And, third, it's neither grammatical nor colloquial; it's a spin, or play on Bob Dylan's song Everybody must get stoned.

The pronoun everybody is indefinite. It refers to a broad group of people, a group that has little specification, and so it doesn't work with modal mustn't, because in the negative that modal requires a subject that refers to a specific person. Consider this. The pronoun somebody, like everybody and anybody, is indefinite, but if we make it definite, that is, specify the person it refers to, then it works with negative must. Like this,

Specific:Somebody I know mustn't take drugs. Non-specific:Somebody mustn't take drugs.